Today, as never before, the different actors in the chain have aligned their objectives towards the circular economy. This mission involves the development of end-of-life materials, technologies, products and solutions. The articulation of the different actors is the key to achieving this.

(Photo courtesy of Messe Düsseldorf, Constanze Tillmann)

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This edition of K 2022 will mark a new milestone in our industry; climate protection, circular economy and digitalization will be the main axes. There is little time to reverse the enormous damage we have done to the planet as a society, and the plastics industry, deploying its enormous technological and innovative capacity, has thousands of people working to develop solutions to ensure the healthiness, comfort and technology of our modern life, as well as the sustainability of our planet into the future.

In June of this year, the world's plastics press gathered in Düsseldorf to witness what were to be the trade fair launches. None of the companies demonstrating solutions failed to talk about the common theme of sustainability. Each supplier will be presenting solutions that facilitate cycle closure and reduce CO2 emissions.

What for some is a paradigm, for the industry leaders is possible through the articulated work between all the links. EremaGroupGmbH CEO Manfred Hackl summed it up in his presentation: "It is possible to implement a circular economy if all members of the value chain work together". LucrèceFoufopoulos, executive vice president of polyolefins, innovation and technology at Borealis, said, "The transformation to a regenerative and circular system is a societal challenge that defines our era. We see a future of circularity in plastics and carbon neutrality, which can only be achieved if decisive and coordinated actions are taken along the value chain".

 

Renewable materials

The migration from a linear economy to a circular economy requires innovation, collaboration and acceleration, according to raw materials manufacturer Borealis. With this theme, the company highlights the need to work closely with partners around the globe to provide polyolefin-based solutions that enable modern living but in a circular way. In this sense, the company has focused on working on its portfolio of Bornewables circular polyolefins, manufactured from renewable sources. It will also present design applications for recycling, reuse, chemical recycling and advanced mechanical recycling at its booth at the fair.

With its new Bornewables line, the company has worked with the manufacturer Uponor to manufacture crosslinkable PE pipes (PE-X) from renewable sources. The application allows a 90% reduction in the carbon footprint compared to resins obtained from fossil resources. The Bornewables line is obtained from safe-generation natural resources, such as pulp from the production of food oils. Another example of an application of this line of materials is in the manufacture of PPrandom copolymer tubing for piping and heating. The manufacturer Nupi has used this grade as a replacement for PP from fossil sources.

Raw materials manufacturer Lanxess will present Tepex compounds, based on recycled or bio-based materials. One example is TepexdynaliteScopeblue 813, produced from flax fibers and polylactic acid. A grade with a polyamide 6 matrix produced from "green" cyclo-hexane and thus boasting about 80% content from sustainable sources will also be presented. Lanxess will also present a line of sustainable colorants for pigmentation of engineering plastics, which eliminate the need for coatings and thus reprocessing. Marcolex brand soluble inks can be used in a wide range of applications, in virgin and recycled polymers.

 

Machinery and digitization

Reducing the carbon footprint is important along the entire chain. In the machinery sector, suppliers have been working on the efficiency of injection molding production cells, digitalization and technologies that favor the incorporation of recycled material.

"The issues of sustainability, resource protection and living conditions are of increasing concern to mankind, particularly when it comes to plastics," according to Juliane Hehl, Arburg's managing business partner responsible for business development and marketing. "One of the most frequently asked questions we ask ourselves is: How can we today and in the future sustainably unite ecology, economy and society? For us as a machine manufacturer this translates into using as few resources as possible in the manufacture of our machines."

Beyond that, it is also about customers who use the machines being able to make good use of resources and offer solutions for the circular economy. "The entire value chain must always be taken into account. For at the end of the day, the aim is to sustainably reduce the carbon footprint in plastics processing, and to make it possible to incorporate the plastic material within a circular path."

According to injection molding machine manufacturer Engel, it is not only the use of electric machines that allows processors to reduce their energy consumption; it is also important to work on mold temperature control, as there may be significant potential for reducing energy demand. Digitization tools allow millimetric control of material consumption and avoid scrap production, while improving energy consumption.

An Accenture study predicted that, with the use of digitalization, it is possible to reduce CO2 emissions by up to 58%. The contribution of the manufacturing sector to greenhouse gas emissions is 23% within the chain. Engel's iQ solutions enable self-correcting injection molding processes, and today there are ten solutions in the portfolio. For example, iQ Flow makes it possible to control the temperature control processes to achieve the thermal target without wasting energy or water flow in the mold.

Krauss Maffei offers solutions in process management, motor technology and temperature management. All of these solutions can be implemented on existing equipment, and some can even be incorporated into equipment from other manufacturers. For example, it is possible to equip the injection molding machine with a BluePower servo motor and a WeeklyTimer energy saver, which allows power to be consumed only when needed and in the quantities strictly required. It is also possible to use APC plus (adaptive process control) to control the weight of each component in each cycle individually. In addition, the dataXplorer system provides insight into the depths of the process along the value chain, and the smartAssist and socialProduction tools enable real-time response to problems.

 

Closing of the cycle

In the outdoor area of the fair, Erema will present live recycling demonstrations, together with other partners. For this it will work with different recycling streams, and present high-value products. According to Manfred Hackl, "the circular economy has become a mega-trend in the plastics industry, even when it comes to plastic waste, although this was unthinkable a few years ago. This momentum demonstrates the work we have done over the last few years. There is still a lot to do, but players within the value chain are now pulling in the same direction."